Looking to go one and done in the Ironman and trying to decide between these two locations for 2015. Here are my pros/cons, would appreciate any advice or criteria which I may not have considered. Looking to complete not compete. Thanks for your input!
Boulder (Aug 2):
Never been Colorado and have always wanted to check it out
Early August fits in with my race schedule the best (there is a December marathon I really want to do as well)
Why won’t you be able to do a December marathon if you do Louisville? That is at least 7 weeks later, should be enough time to recover and get a couple of long runs in to be ready for the marathon.
Why won’t you be able to do a December marathon if you do Louisville? That is at least 7 weeks later, should be enough time to recover and get a couple of long runs in to be ready for the marathon.
Thanks for the feedback, while I could do it - I have strong doubts I’d fully recovered enough to have a decent marathon. I am basing this off of the years I’ve done multiple marathons, for me I seem to need a minimum of 3 months between marathons to do well.
Seems like a fairly easy decision based on what you listed as pros and cons. Weather can be thrown out of the equation because you can’t really predict that. Given that, it appears money and travel time are the only reasons you would consider Louisville over Boulder. And given how much is spent in a year on this sport, I am not sure an extra night hear and some more travel miles there is going to be that significant (this coming from someone that is rather cheap). Boulder fits your schedule, allows you to do your marathon and is somewhere you want to visit.
Having said all of that, Lousiville is a great race. I imagine the bike is just as scenic, the finish line is great and I personally love the city (things to do, food, etc.).
I’ve done both races and they’re completely different. Louisville is a pretty cool mid-south city with lots of history while Boulder is all we know it to be - active/outdoors, alternative, by no means urban. From a travel/experience perspective, both have merits. You can certainly read all of the race reviews on ST for both to get a better racing perspective. My take - given new Oct. date, IMLou is an overall faster course as heat will be less of an issue and Lou doesn’t have the base altitude issue. I raced the inaugural Boulder race this year and the altitude zapped me on the run big time, along with the dry heat and intense sun on the bike.
I’ve also done both. To me, Louisville was much hotter. It was like 85* at 5:00 in the morning! Boulder wasn’t bad at all, heat or altitude…but I live there too. Some training rides were way worse. We had a great day for the IM.
They are both great races, I like to say different flavors. Do the one that fits best and the one you really want to do.
Altitude is not an issue for most at Ironman, you just go a little slower. The course isn’t necessarily that scenic for the area, but it is quite nice if you’re not used to mountains. It’s also a much faster bike course due to altitude and much less steep hills (about a 15w difference for similar speeds). It’s a wetsuit swim, but will be a few minutes or more slower due to no current. The run at Boulder is a lot hotter and tougher due to the uphill sections and the out and backs with large aid station gaps and no shade, whereas it is flat and fast and more shaded at Louisville (and thus overall much cooler even when Louisville was still in August).
Check out the current weather for the past week in Louisville. Could be any type of weather this time of year. Could be high of 50 and rain all day. Could be 88 and sunny
Louisville has been going on for 7 years that means smooth running ironman course… I am signed up for IM Louisville 2015 and have been there before to volunteer. Also I have trained in boulder like 10 times and used to live out there for work.
Here is what I would say do LOUISVILLE
the attitude may or may not effect you but if it does it is a factor you do not need. The other factor is it is DRY DRY heat so if you are not used to that (like I am from Atlanta) then you better drink like the temperature number says not what you feel like. I am not a fan of throwing a lot of other issues into your race day if you do not have too. Ironman is fun enough versus the cool factor going to colorado.
-Louisville maybe 88 degrees but if you live two hours away you will have plenty of time to get ready for that since it will be a similar climate.
I will tell you one good thing about boulder it is an awesome town and a great place and get this I usually run faster out there with comparable numbers that being said sometimes I go there and I am all good sometimes I go there and I am wiped by the attitude do you want to take that chance with a ironman looming?